sera guide - Shrimps and crayfish

31 The animals enjoy an occasional piece of fish or meat. However, be sure to remove uneat- en food from the terrarium soon, as it would quickly start to rot. A bowl with sera crabs natural can remain in the terrarium for a longer time as a depot. A specialty of land hermit crabs, to which their name refers, is that they use an empty snail shell to live in. As this shell cannot grow, the crab switches shells in regular intervals. Therefore, the crabs always should have a selection of snail shells to chose from. You can purchase them as decoration items, or you may find an empty shell of a Burgundy snail. During exuviation, land hermit crabs leave their shell. During this time they urgently require shelters and a moist bottom ground into which they can dig. As the animals orig- inate from the tropics they require a temper- ature of 25 – 30°C (77 – 86°F) and an atmos- pheric humidity of 60 – 80%. Depending on the terrarium size, a normal light bulb and daily spraying with water is sufficient. This guide gives you a first view into the fascinating care for crayfish and shrimps. Among others, you can find further informa- tion about the exciting shrimps and crayfish topic in the book “Garnelen & Krebse”, issued by Christian W. Hofstätter. The author, a biologist, knows the natural envi- ronments of the crustaceans and runs a breeding station in Venezuela. Kosmos Verlag 121 pages ISBN 978-3-440-10471-2 (available only in German language) You will find further advice on keeping shrimps and crayfish on the web sites of the author: www.garnelenzucht.de and www.shrimp-pictures.com If you require special information, e.g. concerning keeping conditions of specific species, please contact your specialized retailer or breeder. We will inform you in detail about aquarium setup and aquarium care in the sera guides “How to set up an aquarium” and “Aquarium care according to nature”. The guides are available from the specialized trade or on the Internet on www.sera.de.